How to uninstall apps

Here at Android Central, we are always telling you about the latest and greatest apps. We even show off some new apps favorites every week. But, maybe you tried an app and just don't like it. You want it off you phone but just can't figure out how. No worries, follow the steps below and you will be all set!

Zoodles for Android brings kid-friendly mobile Flash gaming

All you Android-toting parents out there will be pleased to know that Zoodles Kid Mode is now available for Android. Zoodles is a program that puts your phone into a "kid mode" for peace of mind while your child uses your phone or PC. Once you load up the app, the phone is soft-locked into the app so that it takes a little more than a random keypress to get out of the app. It won't stop your child from exiting the app if they really want to, but with plenty of Flash games and videos that can be customized as favorites for each of your children, there's no reason for your little one to want to. The app gives spoken as well as visual directions, and is easy to navigate, so this is a perfect companion for your child while waiting at the doctor's office or while on a long car trip. It's available in the Market now, so be sure to check this one out. Presser after the break.

Motorola announces the rugged Defy, destined for T-Mobile by the holidays

Motorola this morning announced the Defy, a 3.7-inch rugged Android phone coming to T-Mobile by the holiday seasons.

The Defy is scratch- and water-resistant, as well as dust-proof, Motorola said in its announcement. The phone appears to have the new version of the skin-that-shall-not-be-named, and Adobe Flash Lite is on board, which suggests it also has Android 2.1. The Defy also sports a 5-megapixel camera and DLNA access. More pics after the break. [Motorola]

Toggle application auto updates with a single app (root required)

On Episode 28 of the Android Central Podcast, Alexander from Austria asked if there was an easy way to turn off automatic updating of apps, so that he wouldn't have to contend with the downloads sucking down the roaming data. And over the weekend, XDA Developers member eddieringle released just such an app.

Your phone has to be rooted, but once you install Market Autoupdate Bulk Toggle, you can switch between auto and manual updates for all of your Android Market apps with a single tap.

There's no widget yet, but hopefully we'll see that added in the future.

More info at the source link, and a download link is after the break. [XDA Developers] Thanks, Sethjk!

Froyo update brings Gmail bug to many

If you recently received your Froyo OTA, you may want to check to see if you're affected by a nasty little bug in the Gmail application by which any secondary accounts don't sync automatically. Users of the Nexus One, HTC Desire, Droid Incredible, Sprint Evo 4G, and Droid 2 seem to be equally affected, so this is likely an issue across the board and we'll see more reports as more devices get upgraded. What's most frustrating is that while this bug affects Android, it's not part of Android itself, so the community can't take a look and find a quick and dirty hack while waiting for a more permanent fix from Google -- the Gmail apk is closed-source and Google property.

There are myriad fixes floating around, but they seem to be temporary at best. The only true fix at this time is to use a third party mail client, like K-9 mail to sync the secondary GMail account via IMAP. The bug's been filed, be sure to chime in at the source link and let the Googlers know if you're seeing this one. In the meantime, links to install K-9 are after the break. [Google Mobile support] Thanks Artur!

Job posting at id Software hints at possible Android game

If you watched Apple's Special Music Event on Sept. 1, you couldn't have missed Epic Games new tech demo, Epic Citadel. Although, just a tech demo at the moment, Epic Citadel is no doubt it is one of the most beautiful games we've ever seen on a handheld to date. Unfortunately for us Andorid users, this Unreal Engine 3 powered game will only be available on iOS devices.

Even though we may not be seeing any Epic Games titles on our Android devices, there may be some love from another tripple-a developer, id Software. A new job posting from id Software is looking for an Android programmer to join id's mobile team. id Software is known for industry leading titles: Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein. Basically, they're the guys that birthed the FPS genre we know today.

Currently, id is developing their new engine, RAGE, which was shown off at QuakeCon running at 60fps on iOS. We're hoping id is looking to bring RAGE to Android phones everywhere soon. We can't play the Angry Birds Beta forever now, can we? [Joystiq via [1UP]

Android Quick-App: Astro Player Beta (a multispeed podcatcher)

As far as music players and podcatchers go, Astro Player Beta isn't in our top five. There definitely are more attractive apps that are easier to use. But it has one feature that we've gotten a bunch of questions about -- the ability to listen to podcasts at greater-than-1x speeds. That's right, you can speed up the dulcet tones of Jerry, Mickey and myself and crank through the weekly news in half the time -- and make us sound like chipmunks in the process. It has an option to speed up the playback but keep pitch the same, but it's marginal. The whole speed thing is labeled as "experimental," and your mileage may vary depending on what you're listening to. Check out a demo and grab the download info after the break.

Another Droid X Froyo update leaks out

Yeah, we're still waiting on Android 2.2 for the Motorola Droid X. But for those of you who are rooted and don't mind a little hackery, another leaked OTA (see our hands-on with the first) has appeared at My Droid World. You need to be rooted to get this guy to install, and you're going to have to use Koush's bootstrapper. And now would be a good time to remind about the warning Motorola issued after the previous leaked Froyo build -- mainly that if you do this, don't expect help from Moto if a newer OTA actually gets pushed out. But you knew that already, right? Check out the full instructions at the source. [My Droid World via Android Central Forums]

Are you ready for some football? Fantasy football on Android

Are you ready for some football? If you’re a football fan and like to play fantasy, hopefully your team is set and ready to dominate your league. Even though Drew Brees and Brett Favre (OK, Farve, not so much) started helping their teams on Thursday night, things really get going today. Before the rest of the games start, we wanted to provide you with a brief overview of some of the best fantasy apps for Android.

Swype beta for Android updated, older version expiring soon

If you're rocking the Swype keyboard -- the beta version, not the one that's preinstalled on newer phones -- you likely just got an e-mail telling you it's time to update. Couple of reasons for that: One is that the current beta will expire in a couple of days, and the other is a slew of bugfixes. The full changelog is as follows:

Added German and Portuguese languages

Added the auto-space suppression short-cut gesture: Swype from the spacebar to backspace

Added the quick language switch short-cut gesture: Swype from the Swype Key to the Q key

Improved the word prediction algorithm to provide better support for additional languages

Improved handling of several gesture collisions, including want/wasn't, to/too and others

The Android IME no longer sometimes hangs/crashes when Swype scrapes the user's address book for dictionary entries

Tips and help menus now accessible when a password field is active

Backspace now works in applications which use raw key input instead of an editable text field (e.g. terminal emulator)

The single character "i" is no longer incorrectly auto-capitalized in non-English languages (reported by many of you!)

So that there's no confusion: If Swype came pre-installed on your phone, stay away from this update. If you registered for the beta on Swype's website, and that's where you initially got Swype, you're good to go.

DirecTV brings the NFL to Android with Sunday Ticket To-Go

Do you have DirecTV and want to watch NFL games wherever you go? Now you can with NFL Sunday Ticket To-Go, which has now been brought to Android. You must have the NFL Sunday Ticket to register for this mobile package, which costs $49.95.

What's included:

Live streaming video of every NFL game (subject to blackouts)

The NFL Red-Zone channel

Highlights from every game

Scores and instant game stats

Once you subscribe to the service, download the app below to start watching your favorite team. [DirecTV] (Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

Portions of this page are modifications based on work created and shared by the Android Open Source Project
and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 2.5 Attribution License. AndroidCentral is an independent site
that is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google.